World AIDS Day starts HIV Awareness Month

by

Lacey Alexander

• Published on December 1, 2022 • Comments

A man walks past a banner with a red ribbon, the universal symbol of awareness and support for those living with HIV, during an awareness campaign to mark World AIDS Day in Mumbai, India, Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012.
AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool

Today is World AIDS day and December is HIV Awareness Month. In 2020, the most recent year that data is available, 240 HIV-positive Mississippians died. According to the interactive online mapping tool AidsVu, nearly half of those deaths were under the age of 55. The state's mortality rate of HIV patients has been higher than the national average over the last three years.

Lacey Alexander

World AIDS Day starts HIV Awareness Month

In Mississippi, over 70% of people living with HIV are Black. Dr. Ben Brock is a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He says that Mississippi is not unique in this data trend.

"The areas of the country and the areas of the states with the highest HIV rates are also the places with the highest African-American population," he said. "it's a social justice issue."

There are preventative measures people can take to protect them from HIV. Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis drug, or PrEP, is reportedly 99% effective. Brock says that this drug is easily prescribed, but it can still be sometimes difficult to obtain.

"There shouldn't be any theoretical barriers to PrEP," he said. "but... access to primary care and preventive services is very limited in Mississippi, especially for low-income people and people who live in rural areas."

Brock says detecting HIV and starting treatment early can greatly increase survival rates.